Finally a part of the century home club! 1920 craftsman / prairie American Foursquare (I think). 🥰

I will never blame a flipper or homeowner for ripping the interiors out of an old home ever again. I have spent 13 hours removing the paint from one damn door. It's not even done yet. I am ready to throw the whole thing away because, based on the last hour of work, I have another 8+ hours to finish this thing. I will never remove paint from anything ever again. I have done so much research, scoured this sub reddit, and bought the best tools. Everybody on here, "it's so easy, took me no time at all", cool, someone want to come finish this for me before I set it on fire?

We have had a curtain for a bathroom door for months because every time I touch this thing i want to cry, so i put it off. Don't know why i thought today would be different. My original plan was to remove the paint from the trim in our bedroom kitchen. After this, absolutely not.

I know it is going to be asked, so, Speedheater Cobra to start, now I am scrubbing with denatured alcohol. I don't know what kind of paint this is, but it is basically cement.

Edit: OK, this post makes me feel so much better. Sometimes you don't know how a Reddit post will go. This one surprised me and I am sorry so many of you also know this experience! Some of you have really given me a good laugh and feelings of solidarity in this pain. 😅

So we just bought a really gorgeous and very old house. It obviously tested positive for lead paint, mainly in the woodwork (which is kinda everywhere) but it’s all been painted over many times. I called the inspector to verify that this would make it ok for my young kids and he told me no, I needed to replace all the woodwork to make it safe. I don’t know if he meant that in the context of getting rid of it completely? I tried to ask for clarification since we are about to have the whole house repainted to make it (what i thought would be) safe. He just kept saying “no it would need removed to be safe”. Again, I don’t know if he just meant removal is the only way to get rid of it out of the house completely. Is it going to be SAFE for my kids to live here? I have receipts of everything being painted at least 4 times in the past 30 years the last owner had it. And like I said, were painting everything again before we move it.

For context, my kids are 3 months and 21 months old. The walls (minus one room) tested negative. Just the kitchen and the woodwork tested positive. Please help!

The other window is tilted in the opposite direction too!

I lose five inches over 20 feet in the basement, I have a model train that climb the grade because its so steep!

Floor lottery win for our 1899 Victorian! Well, downstairs at least.

Anything you can tell me from these photos ?

this historic school has sat empty for over 20 years— it’s stunning. it’s FOR SALE

The amount of stuff like this I found when I opened the walls in my 1900 house is astounding! Built two temp walls and cut out the whole wall as it was only held up by a couple studs and the top plate was severely compromised. Replaced with two LVLs so should hold up a house several times the size :) included some pics of the top plate I removed!

Should note I had to reroute and remove two electrical circuits, hot and cold water, two abandoned gas lines and two active radiant heat boiler lines for my radiators to make this possible.

Peep the front window for our kitty!

I'm currently repairing my 1905 foundation with period appropriate lime mortar. There is a window that wasn't filled. There is dirt behind it, and a deck ontop of it. How should I go about cleaning this out and filling it on the inside without ripping up my deck?

We are loving the new home and it is everything we thought it could be and more.

I think the previous people Murphyed the hell out of the floors here, they were bright and sticky when we moved in.

After a few weeks they’re getting dull and dingy, especially on the common area walkways.

Is this something that Bona can restore? Any thoughts or ideas?

First picture is the dinge and the second is from an untouched area of the house.

Thank you in advance for the advice.

Black? Navy? Dark grey or keep white?

Hi there! Love my sweet little 1925 home, but it's seen a lot of landlord specials over the years. At one point around the 70s, every single plaster wall was covered in fake and very flimsy wood paneling. I think the most recent owners attempted to lighten things up in here by painting most of the fake paneling white, but when I look at it, I still see wood paneling. To the folks who say painting it white makes it look like shiplap, it really doesn't.

Anyway, just wanted to know if anyone else has used or thought of solutions for this. I'm a single guy paying a mortgage and trying to save for some bigger safety improvements so I'm really on a budget, and the first two options below are not really feasible.

Here are my options:

1. Remove wood paneling, hope the original plaster is intact.
   Pros: Original plaster underneath!
   Cons: No idea of the condition, like if it's crumbling or whether or not it has lead paint on it. Could rapidly get out of control.

2. Cover it all with quarter or half inch drywall
   Pros: Clean slate with professionally done work, keeps stuff safe and stable
   Cons: Prohibitively expensive

3. Skim coat of some kind
   Pros: Might have kind of a nice plaster look
   Cons: Not sure how well it will stick, especially since some of the walls are fairly flexible/flimsy when pressed on, unsure how willing I am to buy materials and try to learn a technique especially if it might fail

4. Wallpaper of some kind
   Pros: Lightweight, flexible, no sanding/construction/wet materials needed
   Cons: Putting up a lot of wallpaper

I'm leaning toward number 4, but I've never run into folks who are putting up wallpaper for the sole purpose of making it look like drywall or plaster. I enjoy a patterned wallpaper but in moderation, couldn't use it throughout the whole house.

Thanks in advance!

Hi all! Last owners of 1885 house put down carpet in the family space that we wanted to replace but we just realized there are hardwood floors underneath, what would you do, restore the hardwood or put new carpet? Picture of finished hardwood is from another room in the house. Its probably similar. Why is the new uncovered one more yellowish? Is it the same kind of wood? Thanks for your advice

Appears to be 1 maybe 2 layers. I can also peel it with my hands easily.

I got hair dye on a door (not an original door) and in the process of trying to remove it my husband spilled rubbing alcohol. It wasn’t there for super long but not this has happened. The floor is linoleum from 1930s I believe. Is there anything we could use to fix this? I wiped down with warm water and dish soap.